Depending on who you ask, some would call the ultrarich “shameless”; others might say “aspirational.” Here’s what I mean: Mukesh Ambani, the Indian centibillionaire, has a room of snow in the Indian tropics—to say nothing of his skyscraper home, 168-car garage, and 600-person-staff. And celebrations for his kids’ weddings featured Rihanna and Beyoncé.
This is nothing new. Aristotle Onassis had whales’ teeth carved into pornographic scenes from The Odyssey, and stools upholstered in whale foreskins which he kept aboard his yacht—because where else would you keep that?
And one hedge fund billionaire—whose name you won’t even know—bought a 14-foot shark preserved in formaldehyde. Why? Why not?
These opulent displays of wealth just scratch the surface. There are blood boys, Basquiats, and bunkers, many of them in New Zealand for the end of the world.
From the Kochs to the Kardashians—most of us cannot look away. But one question remains: Do Americans loathe or love the ultrarich?
That’s one of the questions raised by Evan Osnos’s new book, The Haves and Have-Yachts.
Evan is a staff writer at The New Yorker and an author—several times over. In his newest book, he investigates how this class of people—the “Have-Yachts”—got their money, how they spend it, and how they fight to keep it. It all paints a fascinating picture not just about America and capitalism, but about human nature and the status games we play.
The book feels eerily relevant in this moment of social and political breakdown, fueled—perhaps above all—by rage at the economic picture and economic inequality. As Zohran Mamdani—the self-proclaimed socialist and likely future mayor of New York City—says, “Billionaires should not exist.” And anti-elite sentiment grows on the right, too—through voices like Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Today on Honestly, I ask Evan Osnos what this level of income inequality means for America, if a revolt or a revolution is in our future, and how AI is going to supercharge an already precarious status quo.
Click below to listen to our conversation, or scroll down for an edited transcript.
